In the Footsteps of Giants

It seems difficult to explain the formation of dinosaur tracks during the Flood. A closer inspection of the details, however, demonstrates that the Flood is a more reasonable explanation.

Millions of dinosaur tracks have been discovered in sedimentary
rocks all over the world. Evolutionists have naturally interpreted these
tracks within their belief system, assuming they represent normal animal
behaviour some one hundred million years ago. On the other hand, the
Bible makes it clear that all dinosaurs living at the time, except those
on the Ark, perished in Noah’s Flood. At first glance, it seems
difficult to explain the formation of dinosaur tracks during the Flood.
A closer inspection of the details, however, demonstrates that the Flood
is a more reasonable explanation.

Straight trackways

First, individual trackways (defined as more than one track from the same
dinosaur) are, all over the world, almost always straight.1 Normal animal
behaviour should often involve meandering tracks, as readily observed by animals
making tracks in the snow. Straight trackways indicate that the animals were
fearful, as if fleeing from a catastrophe.

Researchers recently found forty straight, parallel trackways of two types
of large plant-eating dinosaurs in southern England.2 The trackway of a large meat-eating dinosaur
was also discovered nearby, going in the same direction.3 These trackways
provoked a predator-prey interpretation by the evolutionists. But the tracks
could just as easily, if not better, be interpreted as different types of
dinosaurs, all fleeing the same event in the same direction.

Few young dinos

There are few, if any, baby or young juvenile tracks associated with older
juvenile and adult dinosaur tracks. A normal assemblage of tracks should
include abundant baby or young juvenile tracks. For instance, 50% of the
elephant tracks in Amboseli National Park, Africa, were made by babies or
young juveniles.4 Since immature
dinosaur tracks are rare, the trackways were probably formed during unusual
conditions, rather than by normal animal activity. In the Flood, babies and
young juveniles would likely have been left behind, as those more able to
flee the approaching Flood waters hastened away.

Trackways on Flood rocks

Tracks are found only on flat bedding planes.5 The discovery of the recent track in
England just mentioned provides a good example. This favours rapid sedimentation
forming flat strata. Erosion over even hundreds of years in the evolutionary
scheme would have produced at least a hilly topography, exposing several bedding
planes. We should observe trackways on different bedding planes, traversing
up hills and down into valleys.

These unusual characteristics of dinosaur tracks do not fit well with normal animal behaviour.

These unusual characteristics of dinosaur tracks do not fit well with normal
animal behaviour. The evidence agrees better with a time of worldwide stress
on dinosaurs.

How can the tracks be explained within the Flood? Since the tracks were made
by live dinosaurs, they had to have been made during the first 150 days of
the Flood, because all air-breathing animals that lived on land perished by
that time.6 In the Rocky Mountains and high plains
of North America, dinosaur tracks are often found on top of hundreds to thousands
of metres of sedimentary rock that had already been laid down in the Flood.
It is known from erosional remnants that the tracks were buried by many hundreds
of metres of sedimentary rocks laid down on top of them.7
These later sediments were subsequently eroded down to the level where we
find the tracks. This great erosion fits with the later stages of the Flood,
as the water retreated off the rising continents into sinking ocean basins.8

Flood went up and down

Three out of a series of five dinosaur tracks (two badly eroded) forming a straight trackway on a bedding place in north-east Wyoming, USA.

The Flood was a complex event; the waters did not smoothly cover all the pre-Flood
land and then gently retreat. There were forces at work that would have caused
rapid sea-level oscillations during the general rise of the early floodwater.
Besides tides, the sea level would have rapidly risen and fallen, due to vertical
shifting of the Earth’s crust and strong currents sweeping across the shallow
landmasses. Geophysicists John Baumgardner and Daniel Barnette modelled currents
on a totally flooded Earth.9
They began with all the water at rest. Within a very short time, the Earth’s
rotation would cause strong currents of 40 to 80 m/sec (90 to 180 mph) over
the shallowly submerged continents. But most interestingly, they found that
in some areas sea level fell by hundreds of metres and intersected the bottom.
This pattern moved so slowly that the exposed land would have persisted for
many days, but with rapidly fluctuating sea level at the edges.

When were dino tracks formed?

The large region in western North America where the tracks are found would
have started as a deep basin early in the Flood. The basin would have rapidly
filled with sediments, “shallowing” the area. The sediments would have become
exposed for a while as the sea level fell due to one of the mechanisms mentioned
above.10
Desperate dinosaurs would likely have found only a series of shoals and banks.
Either swimming, floating on debris mats, or trapped on higher land nearby,
the adult dinosaurs would have climbed onto the freshly deposited sediments,
made tracks, and quickly laid eggs. When the water rose once again, they
would have desperately tried to escape, forming straight trackways on single
bedding planes. The rising floodwaters would also have rapidly buried the
tracks—a necessary condition for preservation. In fact, the very existence
of dino tracks is evidence for rapid burial.11

We see, once again, how what seems like an “insoluble
problem” for the Biblical history of the world is resolved by a
“closer look.” Rather, we quickly discover that the tracks
are a significant problem for the evolutionary interpretation. Not only
that, but, once we put on “Bible glasses,” the facts about
dinosaur tracks are seen to be consistent with this real history, and
thus are strong evidence in its support.

What about tracks on multiple bedding planes in a local area?

Geologists have discovered that dinosaur tracks are
occasionally found on bedding planes at more than one vertical level
in a local or regional area. The same situation occurs with dinosaur
eggs. The most “difficult” (for Flood geology) occurrence
of multiple planes of tracks is in the Jindong Formation, South
Korea.1 In this
formation, over 100 dinosaur trackways have been discovered on numerous
different thin bedding planes in a strata sequence 100 to 200 m
thick. Dinosaur track expert Martin Lockley explains the occurrence
of dinosaur tracks as representing ‘ … groups or herds
of subadults and adults passing through the region on purposeful
local or long-distance migrations (that is, not milling around or
browsing locally).” 2 Can the Flood explain such a vertical sequence of tracks?

Actually, it is not too difficult. As the main
text explains, the Flood involved oscillating sea levels. In some
places, this would have forced dinosaurs to move back and forth
on the exposed land. A thin layer of sediment would have been laid
during each rise, and the dinosaurs would have walked back over
the same area during each fall of sea level. In the case of the
Jindong Formation, one could expect that the exposed land would
have been quite small, so that the dinosaurs would have walked over
the same area, i.e. containing previously-made tracks. A similar
sequence is suggested for multiple egg horizons, which occur on
far fewer horizons than tracks in a local area.

There is substantial evidence favouring the Flood
interpretation over Lockley’s. Within the evolutionary worldview,
a sequence of dinosaur tracks made in strata 100 to 200 m thick
would be expected to have been laid down over a long period of time,
perhaps several million years. This being the case, one would expect
many types of dinosaur tracks. Actually, the tracks on all these
many bedding planes are similar on each horizon, and Lockley
deduces they are from one species of dinosaur. This would be a
nigh-impossible occurrence within the evolutionary scenario, but
expected within the Flood model.

Dinosaur tracks discovered in Queensland needed to
be covered after excavation because they were eroding through exposure
to the elements. So they couldn’t have been exposed for millions
of years. See: Moves afoot to protect our outback dinosaur attraction,
<www.tq.com.au/tqnews/issue02/2features/feat4.htm>, 4 December
2002.

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Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively. We focus on providing answers to questions about the Bible—particularly the book of Genesis—regarding key issues such as creation, evolution, science, and the age of the earth.